On Feb. 18 the girls’ gymnastics team traveled to Moon Township to compete at States. The team members all separately participated in events including: floor, beam, vault and bars. They all placed individually and those scores added up for team score. The gymnastics team placed second in the state.

Athletes qualify to States by earning a 30.0 score or higher. It’s determined by adding together the score for the routines content and execution.

Sophomore Madelyn Pastore placed fifth on floor and eighth overall. Pastore has done gymnastics for 15 years. She started at Uzelac and now performs at LTD academy and competes for the team.

“At States I felt bad because I thought we would get first, but I felt good because that’s the highest we’ve placed in the gold division. It feels pretty good to place eighth overall in the state,” Pastore said.

The team travels to States every year and placed third last year in the gold division.

“It felt great getting second at States because all of the other years we’ve placed third, so it felt like we’ve improved as a team all together,” sophomore Abigail Donlan said.

Sophomore Emma Bettwy has been performing at LTD for 12 years. Bettwy placed sixth on bars and eighth on beams.

“During States I thought about not giving up and giving it my best and doing whatever I can to help the team. Trinity Thomas is my biggest inspiration because she shows to never give up. I’m very proud of all the girls on the team for placing higher than we did last year,” Bettwy said.

Coach Mark Biseli has been coaching gymnastics since 1983 and coaches the girls’ gymnastics team.

“I knew we had good competition like Baldwin who came in third and Moon who came in first is almost impossible to beat. I just wanted to score as high as we could get, and we did just that. I think the girls were outstanding at States. They made me proud,” Biseli said. 

“Team bonding is good for us to be close to each other, so we can do better as a team. On the bus, we talk about our lives. We usually have team dinner in the middle of the year and that helps us become better as a whole team,” Pastore said.